


Kind Of Makes Sense

by agrajag



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Birthday, Love Confessions, M/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-25 22:36:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9849500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agrajag/pseuds/agrajag
Summary: Derek started looking around the kitchen as he was eating and noticed that every available surface not being used for baking was taken up by vases of flowers. Now that he was thinking about it, he was pretty sure he had seen some more flowers in the living room on his way in."Something seems different in here," Derek said, smirking at Bitty."Oh, yeah, Happy Valentine's Day, Bitty," Chowder said. "Jack sent flowers?"Bitty blushed. "Well, uh, yeah. He did."





	

The first card arrived the week before. Another student stopped Derek when he was on his way back from practice to tell him, "You know, this letter's been sitting here for you for a couple days now," and Derek thanked him. The idea of checking for mail hadn't even crossed his mind. He knew his mother would likely send a card and had the year before, but it had arrived late. She must have been anxious about it arriving closer to his birthday and sent it much earlier. She was probably wondering why Derek hadn't sent a text to thank her for it. He opened it once he made it back to his room. It was the kind of card with an overly sentimental poem inside with little room for a personal message to be written. She had signed it "with love" though, and Derek smiled as he tacked it up onto the cork board he had on his wall. It still surprised him that being away from his family had somehow brought them closer, and it wasn't as if they were as close as Bitty and his mom, but it was a start. He sent her a thank you text with quite a few birthday cake emojis.

The second card was handed to Derek his first class of the day. His adviser gave all of her students cards for their birthdays, which wasn't an easy feat. There was a very high number of English majors at Samwell, plus there was all the students who had to take English 101 as a general education requirement, and yet everyone got a heartfelt card on their birthday. Derek tried to downplay how happy he was, especially since he knew it was coming considering he had received one the year before, but he realized it was ridiculous to hide his emotions over something like this. He asked first before enveloping his adviser in a huge hug.

The third and fourth cards came from classmates throughout the day. They weren't birthday cards, but Derek kindly let them know he was interested in someone else, thanked them for the cards, and wished them a happy Valentine's Day.

The fifth card was from Ransom and Holster who practically shoved it into Derek's hands before practice was to begin. They ended up hanging on his shoulders and insisted he open the card right then before they all got changed. It was relatively difficult to do so with them in the way, but somehow he managed to. He immediately started shaking to try to dislodge them while holding the card to his chest so no one else could see the scantily clad red-haired man on the front. If he checked the two of them a couple of times during practice, well, they deserved it.

The sixth card came after practice was over. Bitty had waited until most of their teammates had trickled out of the locker room. "I promise it's not because it's inappropriate, hun," he said quickly. Derek almost died from embarrassment just knowing that someone had seen Ransom and Holster's card despite his attempts to hide it. "Oh, I know you wouldn't do that, Bitty. Thank you." The card had a cartoon bee on it and it said 'Have a bee-tiful birthday' and Derek couldn't help but laugh. Derek was thankful for the card, but he really hoped there would be a birthday pie in his future.

The seventh card was handed to Derek while he and Chowder had dinner in the cafeteria. Chowder was bouncing in his seat, his food completely forgotten, as Derek opened the card. Naturally it had a shark on the front and Derek could almost hear Chowder's voice as he read the message inside. There were many exclamation points and many little hearts drawn around all the words. Chowder hugged Derek before Derek could even ask if it'd be alright. Derek was so thankful to have Chowder as one of his best friends and he was glad the hug was happening because for once he wasn't sure he could express it in words.

The eighth card wasn't signed "with love" and it didn't have a poem or a pun and it, thankfully, didn't have any half naked people on the front. It wasn't even store bought. It had been made out of a plain piece of computer paper folded down the middle. There were doodles of hockey sticks and pucks on the front and inside, in Dex's barely legible chicken scratch, it simply said 'Happy birthday Nursey.' He hadn't even signed his name. It was the best card Derek had ever received. Before Derek could thank Dex, he quickly told Derek that Bitty was making a rhubarb pie for him and started dragging him to the Haus.

Bitty was just pulling the pie out of the oven as Derek and Dex walked into the kitchen. Bitty looked up and seemed surprised to see Derek there already, so Derek decided to mess with him a little bit.

"Just wanted to say sup," Derek said, drawing the word out.

"I don't know how you two got here so quick," Bitty chided as he waved his mixing spoon at them. Chowder laughed. "It's still gonna have to cool, you know?"

He handed them all plates with a piece of the pie on it, anyway.

The three of them ate in silence for a few minutes. The only sound in the kitchen was Bitty humming to himself as he began preparing the crust for a second pie. They all knew there was no way one was going to feed the whole team, and even though it was technically for Derek's birthday, everyone would be disappointed if they didn't get a slice. Derek started looking around the kitchen as he was eating and noticed that every available surface not being used for baking was taken up by vases of flowers. Now that he was thinking about it, he was pretty sure he had seen some more flowers in the living room on his way in.

"Something seems different in here," Derek said, smirking at Bitty.

"Oh, yeah, Happy Valentine's Day, Bitty," Chowder said. "Jack sent flowers?"

Bitty blushed. "Well, uh, yeah. He did. Did Farmer get you anything, hun?"

Chowder leaned down, picked up his book bag, and pulled out a card and a bag of gummy candy. "Look! They're sharks!"

"That's awesome C," Derek said. He turned to Dex. "Guess how many cards I got today, Poindexter?"

Dex sighed. "Like, twenty?"

"Eight," Derek corrected. "One was from my mom."

Dex tried to hide his laugh, but it resulted in the bite of pie he had just taken ending up all over the table. It looked like some rhubarb filling even ended up on one of the vases that Bitty had set up on the table. Chowder started laughing at Dex, but he was also patting him on the back while he recovered.

"Sorry about that," Dex mumbled.

"Oh, it's alright, hun," Bitty told him. "Lemme get you a glass of water."

Once the commotion had calmed down, Derek turned back to Bitty. "Don't think I've forgotten about the flowers, Bitty. I think Jack may have gone overboard."

"Oh hush, you. Jack said it was alright if I shared the flowers with you boys, anyway. Lord knows ya'll need help sometimes. Ransom already took a dozen to give to March."

"Even if we all took a dozen to give to someone, there still wouldn't be space to move in here."

"Well, then, you'll have to take eight dozen and give them to all your admirers," Bitty muttered.

Dex started coughing again as he choked on his water.

"You mean seven," Chowder pointed out. "One of the cards was from his mom."

"And one was from you," Derek said. "Are you admitting you admire me, C?"

"That was a birthday card!"

"Yeah, and most of the cards I got today were birthday cards. I don't exactly have people throwing themselves at my feet. I don't know where you guys got that idea from. The few that were Valentine's, I told them I was already interested in someone." Derek shrugged. "So I don't need any flowers."

Bitty seemed to have forgiven Derek for all his chirping. He started jumping up and down as he grabbed a bouquet of roses from the counter. "No, that's the perfect reason for flowers. You have to give 'em flowers, Nursey. It's the day of love, after all."

Derek knew if he put up a fuss, it would just look suspicious. He took the roses with a quick "thank you" to Bitty and risked a glance at Dex. He seemed overly interested in his pie all of a sudden. The front door opened, banging against the hallway, and Holster and Lardo crowded into the kitchen. Lardo must have been at the Haus since the flowers started coming in because she didn't even spare them a glance before heading straight for the pie. Holster on the other hand was turning around in a circle with his mouth wide open as he tried to take it all in. Poor Bitty was in for some more chirping, and Derek almost felt guilty, but it was their duty as his teammates. He was sure Jack was getting his in the group chat already. Before Holster could get his bearings, Derek got up to put his plate in the sink, thanked Bitty, and left the Haus with the roses in hand. He had made it about a block before he heard someone jogging behind him.

"Hey, Nursey."

Derek turned around to see Dex jogging toward him, carrying a bouquet of his own.

"Hey, Poindexter. Bitty made you take some flowers too?"

"Uh, no... no," Dex said as he fell in step with Derek. "I asked for them. Look, I know you're gonna give your flowers to someone else, but everyone's got someone this year, and it kinda gave me the courage to, uh... They're for you. I have feelings for you, and I have for awhile. I know keeping it to myself leads to us fighting more than we should, so... I know it's cliche to do it today of all days, but, here you go, Nursey." Dex basically shoved the flowers in Derek's face. "Happy Valentine's Day."

Dex couldn't see Derek's smile since the flowers were blocking his face, so Derek carefully took Dex's bouquet and handed his to him in exchange.

"Uh, Nursey?"

"The person I'm interested in is you, duh. I took the flowers so Bitty wouldn't chirp me. I can't believe you beat me to it."

Dex laughed. "You weren't going to give them to me, were you?"

"No, I wasn't. I'm so mad that you were braver than me."

"I'm not," Dex said. He laced the fingers of his free hand with Derek's. "If I hadn't, then we probably would have danced around each other for god knows how much longer."

"Alright, you have a point there Poindexter. Now, do you have a vase in your dorm room? Because I sure as hell don't."

"These flowers are a curse."

Derek pulled his phone. "Holster and Ransom are already chirping Jack."

"He doesn't care, does he?"

"Not at all. Come on. Let's drop these off at my dorm and we can go to that 24 hour thrift store to buy cheap vases."

Dex squeezed Derek's hand. "I like the sound of that."

**Author's Note:**

> i tried to upload this w/o a title and realize i have no idea what to call this, so title taken from the february tweets about nursey's birthday


End file.
